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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Life Of The Party

Just in case that electric bow tie doesn't get you banned from the neighborhood shindigs, here is the 1948 version of the karaoke machine. What fun it will be to listen to this happy guy - this could be you! - talking and singing- and singing and talking - on and on through his little Radio Microphone.

Now you should know that you can broadcast "from any room." Oh, that's good! Guess where the guests will ask you to broadcast your little variety show from. Maybe from the attic. Or the garage. Maybe a room in another house altogether.

It may be wonderful voice practice, but please don't forget to order that job lot of industrial-strength earplugs as well. The Empire Radio & Television* people may want to think about some kind of special two-in-one deal.

14 comments:

The guy in the illustration would look swell in a bow tie, electrified or not.

I think you're onto something with the broadcast 'from any room' part. Still, you could turn it to your advantage and promote the Pantry Polka Party and the Back Porch Blues Hour. Sunday afternoons could be devoted to Attic Arias or Crawlspace Concerts.

I'm a little leery of connecting the microphone, though, despite the promise of enclosed instructions. I don't think the rest of the household would be happy with a radio that only broadcasts in-house talk-sing programming in the event that the radio gets broken during installation.

I remember seeing those ads years ago. I think it may have fueled my desire to be a disc jockey.

The great thing for my audience was the radio had an off switch. And I always had to broadcast from just one big studio. If I left that room, no one could hear me. I do miss my electric bow tie though.

About Kitsch and Retro

Welcome! I'm Lidian and this is Kitsch and Retro...I love vintage ads, retro homemaking, and domestic history - from the Victorian era to the 1970s. I hope you will enjoy your visit as much as I enjoy writing this blog - and that you find it as full of quirky fun stuff as a 1950s molded salad - minus the celery, because ugh, celery.